Does MIT allow students to "leave" and then come back?

Colleges & Universities Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>Does MIT allow students to “leave” and then come back? Bill Gates once joked “If Microsoft ever falls through, I’m going back to Harvard.” This is what Mark Zuckerberg did when leaving Harvard as well. Same with Larry Page and Sergey Brin when leaving Stanford. Does MIT allow students the same level of safety?</p>

2

<p>Yes, you can arrange for a leave of absence from MIT (two of my friends did that for this semester). Generally, they want you to do something in the meantime but if you’re otherwise in good academic standing, I hear they’re pretty easy to arrange.</p>

3

<p>One of the founders of my husband’s company took something like seventeen years to finish his undergrad degree at MIT, because he kept wandering off to do interesting airplane design things.</p>

4

<p>Yes. Though not in the same way as Harvard. I believe at Harvard, if you’re in good academic standing, you can go back whenever you want so long as you haven’t earned a degree elsewhere. At MIT, you arrange for such things, and have to be approved by a dean in order to come back. That said, if you’re in good academic standing, that’s basically a rubber stamp :)</p>

5

<p>Thanks everyone!</p>